Mini Smartphones From Japan [video]

Cheap phones are getting bigger and bigger too.

Then, you can really think about the core electronic guts, the screen, and the overall packaging and the price range of these products...

iPhone 12 mini: 131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm 135 g

Rakuten mini: 106.20 x 53.40 x 8.60 mm 79 g

Likewise the HMD feature phones, the gimped and locked down s40+ OS is just so bad as to be almost unusable, simple things like in-line conversations for text messages, absolute dogshit UI and sound quality for mp3 playing and even calls.

It’s a shame boot2geko and KaiOS just kind of flopped because a proper open alternative would be cool.

The battery kept getting worse after recharging, so I eventually replaced it with a new one -- and everything was back to normal.

I loved the hardware, but it had some awful "value-added" Motoblur software atop Android that seemed to put Motorola in the loop on Internet communications, where it didn't belong.

And unfortunately the Defy was locked down against alternate firmware. So I got a Samsung i897 Captivate (122.4mm x 64.2mm, 118g), and found a nice alternate firmware Android fork for it.

Currently, after various phones that didn't work as well, or that were creepily invasive (e.g., iPhones, vendor Android), I'm currently using GrapheneOS Android firmware, with Pixel 7 hardware.

Plus a case sufficient to let it likely survive a drop. The result is a bit of a brick, which beats up my trousers pocket, looks dumb, and sometimes causes chafing. I've started experimenting with not carrying a phone at all again, and it's a bit of a relief, though occasionally I miss a photo.

(But it's not the same as walking phone-less before. Everyone and their dog has now set up networked surveillance cameras, feeding centralized data fusion of the current regime. So you're arguably being tracked even more now, phone-less, than when you used to walk around enjoying the benefits of your earlier phone.)

Unfortunately, the hardware, software, and interoperability of those Rakuten phones is too limited and outdated.

And a (small) tablet for drawing and videos, it has less constraints in term of size, and can live in my bag.

Here's the single search result that appeared:

https://www.gsmarena.com/cubot_kingkong_mini_4-14099.php

Its CPU is comparable to that of my old S8, but the GPU is considerably worse.

This size category actually extends to 70mm, as there are no other vaguely mainstream phones smaller than the Galaxy S25 clocking in at 70.5mm.

I shift my grip around the phone quite a bit, and since getting one of those magnetic charging nipples I've been using that as an extra grip point, but I've never felt really inconvenienced handling my phone.

N900i and P900i(2004) were running XFree86 on Linux. NTT Docomo was moving Linux based phones in orders of 10m for couple years on half a dozen model by the time iPhone launched.

But there were waaaay too many stakeholders with little focus on customer facing values and too much obsession with self punishment involved in those businesses. Using OpenGL for UI was considered irresponsible, indulgent, lustful, lacking in restraint, associated with those kinds of emotions. That and Apple's relentless anticompetitive pursuit burned down Japanese phone industry into ashes.

What was missing was user interface, and the environment that would allow user interface software to develop without getting shut down as a gross offense to the whole society.

Nowadays it wouldn't be so controversial to put a dialer in PSP OS. Back then it was so obviously blasphemous that it would have kept me as a kid awake during nights. How on Earth have life in Japan gotten so simple and reasonable and streamlined these days? Hardly anyone on social media is complaining about highly nuanced local district stitching pattern requirements for kids' school desk wipes anymore.